611 East Wisconsin Avenue

Northwestern MutualMilwaukee, Wisconsin

Project Type: Commercial Real Estate

Project Size: 7 stories

Background

The West Office Building is located at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Van Buren Street in downtown Milwaukee. The building was designed by notable Chicago architect Harry Weese. It was built in 1964 for the IBM Corporation, and it is considered to be a modern building of distinctive design for its use of thin precast concrete panel cladding system.

Challenges

The ZS team was retained to perform a City of Milwaukee Façade Critical Examination. During the examination, distressed conditions were identified and quantified. The following year, Contract Documents were developed for bidding, and repairs were performed by a local qualified contractor.

Results

The owner, under ZS design and direction, performed the repairs during the following construction season at all building elevations. The building façade was restored to a safe condition. This project’s cradle-to-grave project approach included:

Performed a thorough condition survey of the building’s exterior façade, including a hands-on examination along all building elevations

Developed remedial repair recommendations including specialty designed repair mixes to repair the thin Reinforced Concrete panels and maintain the aesthetic look of the cladding

Developed probable construction costs to correct all existing cladding deficiencies

Prepared detailed repair bidding documents for the selected repairs

Performed bidding services in issuing the project for bid in accordance with owner bidding procedures and requirements

For over a quarter century, the ZS LLC team has been leading the profession in building envelope consulting and forensic engineering, as demonstrated by the successful completion of countless specialty engineering projects and enriched facilities.